Week 14: Landscape Zoomed In

April 7, 2016 – You may recall I started this challenge as a kick in the butt to stop reaching for the iPhone instead of my DSLR. Spoiler alert: I broke that rule this week. As my immensely wise husband says: A photographer is not made by the camera. Use what you have available. And what I had available when we circuitously ended up at Giant Rock last weekend was my iPhone.

Yes, I would have rather captured this glacier-looking view of the split Giant Rock with my new 50mm prime, but…

WEEK 14: Landscape/Zoomed In

Most landscapes are wide sweeping images. Try an alternative and zoom in instead.

So how did I end up standing beneath this stunning feat of (graffiti-covered) nature with only an iPhone?

Last weekend–while lounging when I should’ve been editing one of my manuscripts (or as Siri wrote “man-is-rib”)–Brian came home from the market and said he spotted an old sewing machine at a yard sale and did I want to go look at it. I said sure and hopped in the truck without grabbing anything. Not my wallet, not my camera bag. Nothing. Just me. And my phone (duh). The yard sale had closed up for the day, but instead of going home, we took a drive and ended up at Giant Rock.

Giant Rock near Landers, California, covers 5,800 square feet of ground, is seven stories high, and is purported to be the largest free standing boulder in the world. There’s all kinds of mystical stuff surrounding the rock. Like UFOs and spiritual energy. A guy even dug under the rock and lived there for a while.

Sadly, the entire area is riddled with graffiti and litter. I don’t understand why anyone would treck down the long dirt road only to vandalize. People. Argh.

In the above picture, the perspective of the rock is whacked, man. The foreground is a stack of hand-sized rocks, whereas the giant bolder to the right is, well, GIANT. Seriously giant. Check out the miniature car and people just to the right. See? Giant.

I thought for sure this flower and rock shot would be my pick, but flowers are easy. I shot LOTS of flowers both with the iPhone in the above picture, and my Canon below.

Flowers are too obvious a shot, though. Of course they’re going to be lovely.

Joshua Trees are kind of like flowers. Point a camera at them, and they look cool.

And tree silhouettes. Who doesn’t love tree silhouettes?

But a giant split rock? Not something you see everyday, so the iPhone photo won. Here it is again in black and white.